James Hogg was a Scottish poet, novelist and essayist who wrote in both Scots and English. He is best known for his novel The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner. Peter Garside was educated at Cambridge and Harvard Universities and taught English Literature for more than thirty years at Cardiff University, where he became Professor of English and Director of the Centre for Editorial and Intertextual Research. Subsequently he was appointed Professor of Bibliography and Textual Studies at the University of Edinburgh, where he is now a Professorial Fellow. He was one of the general editors of the bibliographical survey The English Novel 1770-1829 (2000) and has since co-edited the critical collection English and British Fiction 1750-1820 (2015). More recent work includes editions of Walter Scott’s Shorter Poems (2020) and J. G. Lockhart’s Peter’s Letters to His Kinsfolk (2 volumes, 2022). Richard Jackson is a retired senior civil servant and keen amateur musical performer. He is author of a number of articles which have appeared in Studies in Hogg and his World.

The editors of this edition of The Forest Minstrel have produced a truly remarkable volume for the modern reader , providing extensive information on the development of Hogg's musical knowledge as well as the context for his talents. There is also one significant improvement on the 1810 edition. Originally, the songs were printed without musical notation in order to keep publishing costs down ... Here, the songs are printeded with this detail. The accompanying CD even allows the reader to hear an approximation of 'the musical world of the genteel middle-class drawing-room' as the editors suggest. -- Deirdre A. Shepherd, University of Edinburgh BARS Bulletin and Review The editors of this edition of The Forest Minstrel have produced a truly remarkable volume for the modern reader , providing extensive information on the development of Hogg's musical knowledge as well as the context for his talents. There is also one significant improvement on the 1810 edition. Originally, the songs were printed without musical notation in order to keep publishing costs down ... Here, the songs are printeded with this detail. The accompanying CD even allows the reader to hear an approximation of 'the musical world of the genteel middle-class drawing-room' as the editors suggest.